Ten minutes later.
In the destroyed range of mountains, a figure could be spotted buried in a crevice of a deep fissure who was monitored by twenty flying figure that were looking down in him with coldly.
Five consecutive times, Mark was chased to ends, still there wasn't an intent from the other side to kill him yet.
" As expected, they aren't planning to make a kill until I am mentally tormented to despair! "
" And this formation, seems like the silver skinned lady is coordinating with others to lay it down! "
" Surely, an abnormal in the abnormals! if I were to kill her wouldn't the formation be crippled there after? "
" Well, since things had come this far, I could only depend on that trick! "
Mark let out a deep breath, before comming out from the burrowed soil to play a bold move.
He dropped down his blades and tossed them to storage space.
He then sat quietly over the ground, looking at the silver figure with a bit of helpless eyes, as if he was asking for mercy.
Sure enough he was baiting her!
Seeing that Mark had given up running, the half mutant in silver skin had some doubts as the beginning but when he unarmed him, she let out a evil sneer which gave chills to Mark who was observing her.
She extended her arm with a glee and used her suction skill to grab him in an instant.
Grab!
Mark's head was grabbed tightly within her silvery fingers, and appeared exploding any second from now.
" As expected! She had the capacity to finish the chase in an instant, yet she didn't! Such a sly character, she isn't to be underestimated! "
" I must take her down in one blow, or else who knows weather I'll get an other chance like this, again? "
Mark warned himself and prepared all things to execute the plan to prevent an abnormality from occurring!
" We... have avenged... Lord owner! "
In an aggrieved tone the women exclaimed these words coldly, before tightening her grip to crush his head to death.
" Che! Che! Idiot! You have fallen for the trick! "
Mark sneered internally, and traversed behind her only to grab her tight to execute his plan.
The original pitiful face of Mark smiled out deviously, and with a blow of wind which gushed out his body, his eyes glowed blue and a light blue flame encapsulated his body, with the women in silver being assaulted under it.
Within a second the encapsulating aura vanished, and the muscular build of Mark with a half burnt body of a red skinned half mutant was left behind.
" Che! She activated her switch skill to replace her with other! "
" Damn her, she's even ruthless to her own men! "
Whoosh!
A light blue flame entered the remaining body of half mutant and Mark blasted him from inside out, marking a true death for that half mutant.
" One down nineteen more to go! "
Though he caught her off-guard, he had failed to kill her sneakily when she felt threatened and replaced her body with an another.
Since she was left alive, the brain of the half mutant group wasn't exterminated, so Mark had to find opportunity and kill her when time suggest.
Roar!~~~ Roar!~~~ Roar!~~~ Roar!~~~
Several ear piercing roars were let out by the half mutants, following which a massive battle took place which shook the very ground by the auras that extruded out their bodies.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Mark brandished his blades and slashed his way out there encapsulation, trying to kill the silver skinned mastermind, who stood behind the mass of hand mutants commanding the others to deal with Mark.
Hands and legs of half mutants were flying out, deep and wide gashes on half mutants bodies could be seen which were heavily inflicted while trying to protect the silver skinned mastermind.
A tall blue bodied half mutant which was a bit separated from the group, and was marked by Mark, which met with an unfortunate fate.
Slash!
Mark traversed behind that half mutant and had beheaded him in a single flash while others were busy maintaining the formation to protect their master mind.
Roar!!!~~~~~
The other eighteen were startled, Mark was aiming for silver skinned at one moment, but at the same time he led them astray and took a member down when they least expected it to be.
Unexpected to him the body of blue hair mutant acted strange. It ran towards its falling head, and fixed it back to its rightful place at a lightning speed.
Even though it's head was separated from the main body, the silver skinned one had given out a command for her subordinate to refix its head.
" Seems like simple beheading isn't going to help much! Either I have to burst them from inside out, or smash their head to meat paste, so as to prevent the sliver one from operating their body! "
This time Mark couldn't help but try experimenting his theory on them, so as to find the correct way to give them a true death.
But before he could try out his theory the group of half mutants became vigilant and were no longer underestimating their target which seems to have powered up.
Later they encircled him from all sides and used a battle formation which appeared effective against Mark.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Minutes after minutes, Mark was close to terminate their heads but silver skinned one would replace them and parry Mark before pushing him back into the formation and before.
"The hell with this formation! It's ruining everything!"
Mark could find an odd thing among their group, it's as if they were coordinating and changing their position, when a half mutant was put under difficult strain.
Silver skinned one was commanding her subordinates to tire out mark and once when she founds a severe injured subordinate, she'll replace him with her, giving them sufficient time to heal.
Though they were simple minded brutes, Mark could see a set pattern in their attacks, it's as if it was a battle formation formulated to deal against him.
" Hmm... as long as its a formation, it would have a pattern, and all I need is to spot it out, to ruin them! "
Mark decided his next course of action and readied his blades with blue flame which spun from the blade edges towards the heads of half mutants.
Though he is engaged in an arduous battle against them, nearing a stalement. Mark was figuring out his way to find a path that could destroy the formation for good.
Though he wanted to traverse out, he couldn't! it was as if a restriction had been imposed by the formation to restrict his space element!
He could only figure out the weakness in formation, to kill the nineteen monsters to escape out.
Though he might sound a bit greedy with this proposal, Mark had the necessary insight go carry it out.
" Nineteen pieces, each had a set of five destined positions, while coordinated they could make a whole set of 1710 patterns.
Hmm... All I have I find is one small blind spot, and I can swift the formation against them! "
" But still their formation is almost flawless as if it was made specifically to deal against asura cry! "
Mark wanted to crumble it but wasn't able to figure it out how?
But still after a deep pondering he found eighteen illusionary lines connecting with each other and seems to make a certain pattern which was changing with each ongoing moves of them.
" It seems alright but still it's missing a thing! "
" Wait I am missing something! This isn't the original formation! It's more like the silver skinned woman is trying shift Her position to cover up a missing unit! "
" No wonder she changes the position of half mutants even if at times it necessarily was not intended to be deployed at that place! "
All formations have strengthening points which could improve its intensity, and so does the inverse which weakens it to ruins.
Since the formations were bound to have weaknesses, all of needs for him was to find it out.
The original formation would require an formation core with with twenty peripheral pieces which could stabilize it.
An additional piece would strengthen it, while a missing one would make it more prone to crumble.
Twenty pieces, each with five sets of destined positions would attribute to 1900 patterns.
Now removing the 1710 variation, all mark did was to find the missing pieces, 190 missing links and among them one such was spotted out by him, which could turn the whole of battle with a single flip of his hand.
" A perfect check mate! "
Mark was excited to find his way out, yet he didn't revealed it arbitrarily.
He knew that the silver skin was cautious and intelligent so he needs to be swift with his moves to prevent her from out again.
Whoosh!
Mark collected his powers to blades which shone a blue fluoresce in night light.
Swoosh!~~ Swoosh!~~ Swoosh!~~ Swoosh!~~
In an instant Mark's blade traced out the illusionary line which connected the half mutants, and sliced down through their necks like a hot knife cutting through butter.
Put! Put! Put! Put!
Put! Put! Put! Put!
Starting with the troublesome silver skinned half mutant, Mark beheaded the other.
With the lesson learnt from his previous mistake, Mark used darkness bind and let out darkness threads which collected the fallen down heads for him to burn it down.
The bodies of half mutants ram towards him frantically, but after their heads were burnt to ash, they fell down in an abrupt fashion as if the earlier vigor in their body was not present any more.
Though they were killed, just to be sure that they weren't playing tricks any more, Mark burned their bodies only to find that silver skinned one was playing dead to deceive him.
" Haha! Some times being cautious is really good! Damn this thing, she was pretending to be dead to find opportunity to sneak attack later! Good thing that i was cautious, if I wasn't, then... "
Mark finished burning the corpses only to find that his skill asura cry was overing.
Just when the skill was overed, Mark felt all his fatigue return to body and his deficit in mana seems to kick it this moment.
Pant!~~~ Pant!~~~ Pant!~~~
Earlier Mark had exerted every bit and ounce of his strength to execute the move, dancing in the night sky with blue fluorescent blades which cut the heads of nineteen in a flash!
After bursting them from inside out mark lost an another large portion of mana and went mana deficit following it.
Mark fell to the ground, right on his head, panting heavily with feel breaths, and seemed to collapse internally any second from now.
Right when he was trying to stabilize his internals, few silhouette in black with inverted daggers in their arms were making their way towards him, stealthily.
" Shit! How did those assassins escaped my sense earlier? "
Mark started panicking this instant. He was defenseless in open and his asura cry was extinguished.
All in all he was a defenseless lamb, which was easier to be slaughtered.
His internals were unbearable and his body was undergoing mana deficit which needs to be stabilized fast!
All in all, he had to stabilize his internals, run his supreme technique to cancel out mana deficit and fight against those incoming assassins to safe guard his life.
" The hell! How can I fall unconscious this second! "
Marks strength was leaving his body, eyes were tapering inwards with body which started becoming numb thereafter.
All he could do was to stabilize his internals, yet the threat of assassins were going to hit him shortly, and his life might very well be threatened any second from then.
He tried resisting against it, but not to avail, as it started worsening more faster than before!
" Ah!~~~~~ "
Mark tried traversing out this place, but due to the deficit of mana his body was tossed back at the same place, leaving his growling body down to ground.
Following it his eyes closed and his body went dull from going asleep.
But before he completely closed his eyes for good, a golden meteor in night sky was falling down, headed straight towards him.
It ultimately burst to various fragments covering the night sky in gold which made several explosions with golden aura blinding one's eyes, following which he went asleep from being unconscious.
Author's notes.
Silver skinned half mutants : Second stage of half mutants. They are intelligent, capable of commanding and coordinating with ordinary half mutants to form battle formations.